Chemistry Commons^™

Adaptive Treatment Of Van Der Waals Interactions In Empirical Bond-Order Potentials With Application To Junction Formation In Carbon Nanotubes, Aibing Liu

All Dissertations

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of reactive condensed-phase hydrocarbon systems is a challenging research area. The AIREBO potential is particularly useful in this area because it can simulate bond breaking and bond forming during chemical reactions. It also includes non-bonded interactions for systems with significant intermolecular interactions.

The first part of this dissertation describes a method to adaptively incorporate van der Waals interaction of carbon atoms into the AIREBO force field. In bond-order potentials, the covalent bonding interactions adapt to the local chemical environment, allowing bonded interactions to change in response to local chemical changes.
Non-bonded interactions should adjust to their …